Star edge rusher Mykel Williams is officially doubtful to play when No. 1 Georgia visits Kentucky on Saturday. Otherwise, judging by the SEC’s new availability report, Georgia will be much healthier than an injury-ravaged Kentucky team.
Georgia listed five players in its very first appearance in the report, which is now mandatory before conference games.
Kentucky, meanwhile, has seven players out, two more doubtful, one questionable and three probable. The Wildcats, coming off a home loss to South Carolina, are 23.5-point underdogs to the Bulldogs.
The SEC installed the availability reports for this season, modeling them mostly after the NFL’s long-standing policy. Teams have to file their reports on Wednesday before a Saturday conference game, then update them daily until Saturday, when a final report is issued 90 minutes before kickoff.
There has been no public pushback from coaches — and if there has been any in private, it’s regarding specific issues. Georgia’s Kirby Smart, for instance, mentioned before the season the need for “game-time decision” to be one of the designations.
“Everybody’s trying to make this big deal about deception or like misleading,” Smart said. “I mean, if I don’t know if a guy can play, then I’ve got to find out before the game. If he can play, then he’s going to go out there and play. But, I mean, we’ve had countless numbers of guys that have gone out before the game to work out to find out if they can play or not.”
Georgia’s official list on Wednesday night offered no surprises:
• Williams, who suffered a Grade 2 ankle sprain in the season opener against Clemson, still has an outside chance of playing against Kentucky. But the more likely goal is the trip to Alabama on Sept. 28, following Georgia’s bye week.
• Tailback Roderick Robinson (out) hurt his foot in the preseason and is expected out until sometime next month.
• Defensive linemen Jordan Hall, Xzavier McLeod and Warren Brinson are all listed as questionable with various injuries. Hall and McLeod have yet to play this season while Brinson played against Clemson before leaving with a leg injury.
Kentucky, meanwhile, looks like it will be without second-leading rusher Jason Patterson and starting guard Jager Burton, who are both listed as doubtful. Keeshawn Silver, the other starting guard who was injured last week, is listed as probable.
How honest are teams being? There didn’t appear to be any funny business last week when South Carolina and Kentucky debuted the report process.
On Wednesday night, South Carolina listed one player as out, another as doubtful (and who didn’t play), three as questionable (two played) and one as probable (he played). Kentucky listed six players as out, two as doubtful (who didn’t play), one as questionable (he played) and four as probable (three played).
Georgia-Kentucky is one of three SEC games this week. The other two also have imbalances.
Texas A&M listed only three players, two of them out, while Florida listed 16 — although quarterback Graham Mertz was not one of them after missing last weekend’s game with a concussion. Florida head coach Billy Napier had declined to address Mertz’s status earlier Wednesday, saying he would wait for the availability report to come out. Mertz not being on the report means he likely will start, though Napier has said freshman DJ Lagway would also play.
LSU has a dozen players listed, half of them out, while South Carolina has only five, with just one of them out.
Texas A&M coach Mike Elko, speaking earlier Wednesday, echoed the other coaches who support the new system.
“I think it’s a good thing,” Elko said. “As long as you know, there’s some standardized enforcement of how the thing is operated, I think it’s a good thing. Obviously, it’s becoming more and more like pro football every year. And so it’s something that’s been around the NFL for a really long time, and I think it’ll it’ll work well in college as well.”
(Photo of Mykel Williams: Todd Kirkland / Getty Images)
